THE BIG HOLIDAY

We have come back from a lovely holiday.
I realise that I have totally dissed my blog and I am not sure whether I will try to make amends or just carry on as if nothing happened.
The renovation did not exactly thrill us with its progress while we were gone. I thought maybe without our prying eyes, the house might magically transform itself (as if released from the burden of modesty). Still, things are happening I am led to believe.
I also up and turned double 21 last week which was nice. Good brekky out and a smashing dinner and awesome cake.
So, on the hols we took a road trip up to Queensland. Yes a road trip without car dvd players and with a 13 yr old and an 11 yr old. They did however give their Nintendos a run for their money
I was fantastic! We booked ourselves a lovely apartment for three days in Broadbeach, but other than that we just meandered our way. We stopped in Canberra and went to Parliament House (didn't see Julia) and the War Memorial. We ate counter meals and stayed in caravan park cabins. We had our own pillows and some other bedding int the car including the tent, but weren't brave enough to camp in the cold.
We got all National Lampoon and went to the BIG BANANA (closed and not so big), the BIG PRAWN (surrounded by cyclone fencing awaiting destruction) and the Theme Parks (aka THE WORLDS).
We drove to the Sunshine Coast and stayed with our dear friends, walked in Kondalilla National Park, Noosa National Park and ate and drank far more than was required.
It rocked.
I would do it again in a flash.

home and away

Been home nearly a week from the camping trip.
Last year you may remember, our trip home was somewhat 'jazzed up' by having our car catch fire and burn to death.
This year there was no such disaster!
We had a beautiful weeks holiday down at Cape Conran; swimming, boogie boarding and generally relaxing.
There was a range of weather challenges to contend with. Rain, wind and total fire ban. The main concern on the total fire ban day was how to manage our well entrenched coffee addiction without the use of the gas stove. After we discussed the matter with the ranger, we worked out that we could take a little walk with the butane gas bottle to a picnic spot with a concreted in bbq. It was ok, he said, for us to cook our coffees on the gas bottle ring as long as it was sitting atop the bbq. So, see the desperadoes trudging through the bush with stovetop espresso pots in hand, extra water, extra coffee and milk. Ha ha. It was fine. We didn't start any fire, we had our coffee and we met a lovely young German couple who were trying to cook toast on the bbq hotplate. They told us their story...their rented campervan had been broken into in Jervis bay and they had lost EVERYTHING including passports, cameras, money the lot! Poor loves. We made them a great coffee. Wish them lots of luck for the rest of their trip.
We left our big darling camping with friends for another week. He is having a ball.
We came back to town to get clean, go to work and have some decent night's sleep.
I can't help it...when I hear the wind blustering through the trees, I can't sleep for fear of being impaled by a falling branch.
The only craft supply I took along (and I don't really know why) was my embroidery threads. At the Orbost oppy, Pam found a VERY special sheet set and we whiled away a few hours embellishing the funky design with a few stitches.
Wii Fit (for xmas) tells me that I am obese, so I'm feeling pretty great about that.
Nothing like hearing it straight. I'm very impressed by Stompergirl's bootcamp adventures but unlikely to follow her lead.
Pity sewing isn't an aerobic activity.

Bliss and double bliss

The days since Christmas have been fantastic! We are all still in holiday mode, having been away for a week..back at work for a week..and leaving to go away again tomorrow for another week!

We had the most unbelievable time on our first week's holiday.
We were invited by friends to go with them to Kangaroo Island, off the coast of South Australia. Nic's parents live there on a beautiful isolated property on the north coast of the island. They live in a home built from rocks collected on the beach at the base of their hill. Their electricity is solar powered, they only use tank water and they live in perfect luxury. From their home, there is nothing else man-made visible as far as the eye can see. At the foot of the hill is a rocky, secluded beach which pods of dolphins swim past many times a day. There are wallabies hangin' out round the clothes line and goannas strolling along the veranda basking in the sun.
Every day a combination of kids and parents and grandparents took a trip on the back of the ute, down to the beach, into the boat (backed onto the water by a rust encrusted tractor) and around into the neighbouring cove to check on the catch in the cray pots. "Any colour?" was the cry as the pots were dragged out of the water onto the side of the boat, "colour" denoting the haul of rock lobsters. Here's a photo of me & Nic with my first haul.
It was rough I tells ya.
Every day we feasted on lobster tails cooked on the bbq or freshly caught King George Whiting, or vegies lovingly plucked from Jude's spectacular vegie garden by the youngest darling, Fletcher. Every morning Nic's dad lined up a host of ingredients and custom made "toasties" for breakfast, using battered old campfire jaffle irons on the bbq.
Needless to say, I have put on a bit of "holiday condition", also in part due to the excessive consumption of Graham & Jude's fabulous wine. (did I mention they have two vinyards and a cellar full of bottles?)
We ate and drank and played Carcassonne noisily and very competitively every night and every day swam or played with crabs in the rockpools and it was heaven on earth!

Who loves aprons?

Just before anything else, I must draw you attention to a new baby blog.
It's called PIECES OF YOU.
If you love patchworking, crafting from recycled fabrics and sheer unadulterated creativity, you must have a look.
Now..it's all about me from this point on.
We just spent the weekend away for a friend's 40th birthday. We made a big drive up to Gippsland to Coonawarra Farm Resort. It's on the Stratford to Bairnsdale stretch. Of course with the inlaws in Maffra, we do make this drive occasionally, but I have never done it on my own. Turns out it's easy, but a little on the dull side. Who would've thunk it? I'm usually sewing or reading or doling out food.
So, it's school camp accomodation but there were no schools booked in for the weekend. We had a room per family, with three sets of bunks, a queen size bed and ensuite!
There was a commercial kitchen, a huge dining hall and a COOLROOM!!!
There were five families, a heap of kids from 12 yrs down to 6 months, and I'm sure readers of this blog (and anyone who knows me) will guess that there was a LOT of food.
The highlight for me over the weekend was psyching myself up to go on the GIANT SWING and the FLYING FOX over the lake. I'm not sure if was the height and velocity I was most nervous of, or putting on the HARNESS! I was so shitting myself. I get nauseous on a normal kiddie swing so I was anticipating disaster.
It was fantastic!

I AM HOME AND I AM 40

Well I'm here, back home after a fantastic holiday.
Bali was the perfect antidote to the 40 blues.
So, I'm IT, 40.
Don't see what the big deal was now.
I still have a party to look forward to in a couple of days, and I admit the freezing cold Melbourne winter isn't exactly my ideal for an afternoon tea party, but what can you do?
The frocks may be under wraps until the room heats up!
The cuppas will be flowing, the cupcakes will be filling and the company will be second to none!

better

Thanks for your well wishes. I am back to rude health after my mystery ailment. I recovered by Thursday after having an E.C.G. and a visit with Dr.Brad. Who knows what that was all about? Best guesses are 1. muscular, 2. dunno.
On the Anzac Day weekend we skipped off with our good mates Nic, Adam & their darlings Olly & Fletcher, down to stay in a groovy architect designed holiday house at Cape Woolamai. There was an architect's booklet of inspiration for the design of the house and all we could work out from that was that they designed the house based on the image of a dead penguin frozen in a block of ice! Such philistines we are. It was called the Penguin House,(also labelled "love-nasium" in the drawings!) and it was a great weekend of fun & food & a monster walk (which went a couple of hours longer than anticipated because we got LOST)
Then back to reality again.
I'm just feeling so uninspired. Well I'm looking at other peoples' fabbo creations and then at my fabric stash and my collection of beautiful crafty books and just thinking....WHAT?? What can I make?
I bought Amy Karol's gorgeous book called Bend The Rules Sewing
and I'm thinking..is this meant to be easy enough for beginners and those "slap-dash" types like me? Because I don't know that I'm really "getting" the instructions. I think this may be indicative of my crafting mojo at the moment. I know I'm not stooopid. I've made lots of lovely things before, things that I've been proud to claim responsibility for, but recently the will to craft is gone.
The will to blog is seriously flagging also, can you tell? I hope to get it back. All of it. And to make something nice sometime soon. My cousin is having a baby soon and if anything can put a rocket up me, that can. Gotta get started soon.
Tomorrow night I'm going to see a band that I used to LOVE seeing live in the olden days. I thought it had been a while..then I heard the ad on radio for the show. EIGHTEEN YEARS since their last performance. My giddy aunt..how OLD am I? I'm a bit frightened to see the rest of the audience, let alone the band. Zimmer frame anyone?

easter fun

I've been neglecting my blog lately.
My excuse is school holidays as usual..that combined with a terminally dropping out modem.
We've had such a great time recently. Especially our Easter break with four other families. The past couple of years we have been camping, and one wonderful organizer gets us all, let's just say..organized. This year she was organizing some other unimportant stuff (in Beijing, sometime around August) so we fell in a heap. We did the slackest bit of camping EVER. Camped on a property in Maldon with a full house at our disposal for the cooking & cleaning requirements.
There are 10 adults and 10 squids, ours being the eldest. We brought up SO much food it was ridiculous. At one stage on Sunday morning I tried to take inventory to plan our next meal and discovered that we had entirely filled a big wide shelf in this deluxe fridge with CHEESE. All sorts, at least five types of brie, aged cheddar, a bit of blue, bog-standard tasty. Needless to say we did not go "without" over the choc-weekend.
As a hot-cross bun devotee (I won't touch one until Good Friday) I managed to scoff about a half dozen. We drank copious quantities of luscious red wine, and a few "duty-free Orgasms".
Apart from one extremely strenuous walk up a rocky track to the fire-tower, with kids in tow, we pretty much blobbed from one divine meal to the next.
I did make a few clips for the littlies, and bulked up my stash of "puffs", but really it was a bludge and I loved every minute! Here are a couple of photos of my minor models.

What happens when your car engine catches fire.( or What I did on my holidays)

Well. We had a slight problem getting home from holidays.
After the huge struggle to re-pack the car with our filthy camping gear to come home, we experienced a bit of a problem just outside of Orbost. The car limped up the main St and ground to a halt outside the Tourist Information Centre (all control lost..brakes, steering etc).
Within moments the entire bonnet was blistered and blackening with smoke pouring out and flames licking the road beneath the engine.
The CFA were called, the police arrived, and we watched as our beloved 2002 Camry station wagon went up in flames. Luckily the flames spread no further than the engine, but as you can see, it is officially a WRITE OFF!
If any Orbostians are out there reading this, I would like to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Everyone was so helpful. It was one of the most heartwarming experiences I have had for a while. People can be so nice!! Thank you again.
The kids & I took a $250.00 taxi ride to the in-laws place in Maffra, while D waited for his brother to arrive to help cart all our stinking camping gear back.
What a way to end the holiday. Thank God it happened where it did and not another 20km down the road. We would have lost control at 100km/hr with no phone reception, no fire extinguisher, probably crashed into a tree or started a bushfire.
So that's something to be bloody thankful for.

On another note, I have just been to visit my new favourite baby, THE SPLENDIDLY ENORMOUS AND DIVINE JORDI. Congrats to my beautiful friends on their spectacular creation.
I want to keep him. My babies are too big & full of attitude now, maybe I could trade them in??!!

GET ME OUT OF HERE!!

This is the sunflower in my garden! A spectacularly wacky one with about ten heads of various sizes. There are other smaller single headed ones too, but this was the best.
Time for a break.
After work today, we are heading off on a little holiday of the unwashed variety.
Two nights with the in-laws and then 9 days camping at Cape Conran. Sun, sand, salty hair and I can't wait.
I am so desperate to get away, I packed my clothes last weekend.
Dog finishes her antibiotics today, has her stitches out and is good to go. She desperately needs to meet some other dogs. Encounters at the park have been fraught with savage barking (Robi) and generally not fun & friendly. I am hoping our friends' dogs can endure the getting to know you process without EATING her.
The only things I am sad about missing out on are:
1. NEW BABY COMING-VERY SAD ABOUT THAT
2. TOMATOES GETTING RIPE-MAYBE THERE WILL BE A FEW LEFT

flashback fridays

Here's one of the only photos I have of my maternal grandparents. It was taken in our garden during their visit to Australia from Scotland.
Sadly, because of the enormous distance between us, I never really had a relationship with them and I can't come up with any "nana wisdom"
Still, it's a cute photo. Look at my Nana's funky shirt and specs! And my Mum..what can you say..she has great style! I was an early adopter of moccasins too.
So, it's Friday again and the final weekday of the school hols, and the sun's shining.
We're going to see Hairspray, I'm going to do some washing and I'll be working on the "shades" in every spare minute.
Do you ever agree to do something then wonder what the hell you've got yourself into???

the birthday is nearly over, the holiday is over

Well, the countdown to 40 is official. I had a fantastic birthday. It was spoiling and love all the way.
My darlings festooned me with treats in bed. I received beautiful girl & bunny silhouette badges and a girl on a swing necklace from "love". My delicious husband knows that "lulu" in Carlisle St stocks a multitude of little desireables that I covet every time I walk past.
My delectable children gave me a boxful of luscious smelly things from "lush".
My Mum gave me some gorgeous earrings that she sneakily bought at last week's DESIGN MARKET and my Dad painted a sensational street scene in moody oils, depicting a stretch of Swan St, Richmond opposite the station. It goes beautifully with the one of the railway bridge that Dave got for his birthday, making a snazzy set.
I am still looking forward to dinner out with the old school buddies on Tuesday, then it's head down until next year.
Kids are back to school tomorrow, so the juggle is over and life resumes it's normal pace. I must thank the lovely Clare, whose work schedule fits mine so well that we were able to swap kids frequently and also J who is similarly accomodating. Thanks.